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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Lawn mowing day

Yesterday was lawn mowing day. Nothing special about that, because during the grass growing season - which is as long as the temperature of the ground is above 15 degrees Celsius - we have lawn mowing day at least once a week. We call it 'lawn' because otherwise nobody would understand, 'mowing' because that is what we would like to be doing and 'day' because the activity almost takes a whole working day.

Roughly half of our 'lawn' consists of a mixture of grass, moss and weeds and is plane enough to be kept into shape with a ride-on mower. This is the part of the job which we like most for it's relatively easy and done fast. The other half of our 'lawn' is something else though. It consists of uneven ground - with lots of big stones, rocks and stubs - which has to be cleared with a grass trimmer and brush cutter. And that's the part of the job which takes a lot of time and energy.

So why don't we just leave this part of the 'lawn' in peace?

The answer is bugs. Bugs like mosquitoes, black flies and the like thrive in long grass and brush and keeping the grass and brush short really helps keeping these nasty flying creatures away from the living area we have created around our house and barns. In the daytime, when the sun is heating up this area, that is. When the evening comes and the sun goes down behind the trees, the mosquitoes and black flies come out in full force. This time of year, they can't be stopped and chase you everywhere. There are so many of them, now, that even 'hundreds of millions' sounds like an amount to wish for. But that's another story.

Back to the subject of this post. Our 'lawn' measures around 7.000 square metres and that's why 'mowing' it takes such a long time.